Bulls Battle Bears » My Investments

Roller Coaster Ride Leads to More Panic Selling…

Aman@BullsBattleBears — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:04:19 +0000

So its been a few long months, I had a lot of changes (positive) in my personal life which caused me to shift a few things around. Unfortunately, I was unable to discuss many of the stock movements. I will gradually ease into this again and hope people will continue follow and share in the discussions.

Happy Investing!

Dividend Stocks – The Other Side

Aman@BullsBattleBears — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:11:39 +0000

When some people look at stocks, they watch the dividend payout. This payout can be a substantial source of income for those that are looking to have a new revenue stream when in their later years. Personally, I like this plan of action and do own stocks in my long portfolio that do just this. Currently the pay out is not substantial, but I’m young and not overly concerned about having this as my income source.

Now, there is always two sides to all stories. When companies are paying out dividends, they means that they are sharing a certain percentage of the profits to the shareholders. This percentage being paid also means that LESS money is on hand for expansion, development of new ideas, and the possibility of slowing down could be on the horizon.

Take for example Walmart, it announced a significant increase in its dividend payout while we all know that they are not doing so great. What was the motivation? Was the increase in dividend payout done to sooth the investors before they start selling? Personally, I would not want a payout increase on my dividends if I know the company could use that money to improve their bottom line. You need to spend money to make money I always say. What will be the point of having dividend payouts when your 500 shares of “some company” go down 20% over 5 years but they maintain a 2% dividend? Every time your paid a dividend, your taxed, so that payout can be even less!

As the markets open, just keep the other perspective of dividends in your mind. Its not always the best thing.

Happy Investing!

Mid-East Impact on the Markets

Aman@BullsBattleBears — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:13:21 +0000

Here is a few quick things to think about during a mid-east crisis as we are experiencing right now.

All of us are going to see higher prices at the gas station, this is a great reason to be holding commodity stocks like oil, gas as well as a safe haven like gold.

On the other side, high oil prices are hurting airlines which now pay more for fuel, have cut off certain routes which is all hurting their bottom line. I’d be shorting or avoiding this sector.

Shipping is going to get expensive too. This will bring the shipping sector to a slow because items are costing more to make, prices increase which is not what consumers want. Retail should start to slow. Food prices will go up. Already cotton prices are very high and clothing companies reported they would be increasing their prices 5-10%, this will just add to the mess.

I was not really playing the markets this week on an aggressive manner. On Sunday I did tweet that the Bulls might be resting after a strong open in January. I was looking forward to a healthy correction which is what some are calling this current sell-off.

Hope this helps navigate you around the market pull-back.

Happy Investing!